


Oh, To Wish For Ignorance

by Rayearthdudette



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Heartbreak and Longing, M/M, POV Outsider, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-15 00:49:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21244778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rayearthdudette/pseuds/Rayearthdudette
Summary: Sometimes one sees things that others don't, and wishes that they hadn't.





	Oh, To Wish For Ignorance

The Captain had been acting a little off recently. Nothing that Crowe could definitively put her finger on.

He's known for being driven, for being patient. 

But he's been too slow to respond lately. Staring at nothing before snapping back to the here and now. Nothing that lasts longer than a second or two, but still discernible. Crowe hopes that he's not trying to hide an injury, then has to berate herself, because he's lit into any Glaive that thinks they could get away with doing just that in the past. So, probably not.

Still. Now that she's noticed it, she can't help but _keep_ noticing the oddities that keep cropping up.

How he looks more tired than he usually does, stress pulling at the corners of his eyes, frowns tugging more often at his mouth.

How he'll pause at random and scrutinize something through a window, across the training hall, when he thinks no one is watching him in meetings.

She still hasn't been able to narrow down the correlation between each instance, but _something_ is wrong with him and she wants to get to the bottom of this. 

So she starts watching him more closely.

Everything could be explained away by the war, by the council, by any number of logical explanations, but she has a gut feeling that it's something deeper.

Nyx laughs at her when he notices her staring, and gets the subsequent tirade when he confronts her about it.

_"Come on, Crowe, he's probably just really stressed. You're making coeurls out of kittens."_

They bicker about it for the rest of the night. Libertus sighing into his drinks.

After months of careful observation she's on the verge of admitting that maybe he was right. 

Until. 

Until _that_ night.

It was _sheer, dumb luck_ that she caught it.

There was _nothing_ that had prompted her to turn. To look away at that moment.

They were celebrating, giggling tipsily over drinks and shouting exaggerated stories at each other. 

The Marshal had _finally_ put his damn boots on, and proposed to Nyx. While the idiot was in the hospital recovering from one of his dumbass antics, granted. But Crowe had been about ready to propose for him anyways, because her brother is a moron. And so in love with Leonis it makes her teeth ache.

The bar is filled to the brim with Glaive and Guard alike, and that's a recipe for absolute disaster, but the alcohol flows freely and no one has started a fight.

Yet.

And Crowe is legitimately having the most fun she's had in what feels like an age. She has her family, her friends, and her brother is drunk on giddy happiness as much as alcohol.

Then she chances to look away from Libertus animatedly telling a smirking Cor a childhood story about Nyx and zeroes in on her Captain in the crowd.

He's leaning against the wall in a corner, face partially hidden in shadow.

Crowe feels her blood freeze.

Captain Drautos looks _broken_. There's defeat and an agonized _longing_ on his face, in his eyes.

Her breath deserts her when she follows that gaze across the room and finds it centered on Nyx. Her _brother_. Her newly _engaged_ brother. Who is laughing brightly, refills in hand that he sets down to plant himself into his _fiancee's_ lap. Who is so very happy. And in love.

Oh.

_Oh no._

She's found her answer.

And wishes that she hadn't.

When she turns to glance at her Captain again, his appearance is that of his usual cool indifference, but she's seen underneath the mask now.

And can't see anything else.

Little details that could easily be brushed off, jump out as if clamouring for her attention.

His lips tremble almost imperceptibly, his shoulders slightly raised, the hand clenched a hair too tightly around his drink.

But the worst.

The worst are his eyes. They're shiny with unshed tears and just _scream_ pain.

Scream and wail his utter _devastation_.

How long. 

How long has he loved her brother?

How long has he known Nyx doesn't return those feelings?

How long has he quietly been _hurting_?

Crowe doesn't know.

Doesn't _want_ to know.

Wishes she _didn't_ know.

Because there is nothing she can do about it.

Even if she could, she wouldn't _dare_ take away from the sheer ecstatic joy of her brother.

Her Captain is suffering and there is no way to fix it.

And that makes her want to cry, to set something on fire, to simply _ache_ in sympathy.

**Author's Note:**

> Swear to the fucking gods I don't set out purposely to write angsty oneshots aimed at Titus between writing for Not Stupid. It just. Happens. He's too damned _easy_ to hurt D:


End file.
